July 30, 2006
Rev. Linda Fernandes-Bailey
Thin Places
With everyone on low carb diets these days I wonder how will we understand the gospel of John? The next few weeks we will cover a portion of chapter six of John’s gospel and there will be an awful lot of talk about bread. It seems to me bread has become a “bad” food. Bread is one of those bad carbs that will feed our carb addiction…it’s a bad word. Stay away from bread is the word for low carb dieters! Not so in John’s gospel. Bread will be the spiritual food we need to sustain us. Bread will symbolize who Jesus is for us as Christians. Bread will feed the multitudes. Bread will lead us to eternal life. So if you are convinced that bread is bad for you suspend that belief for the next few weeks and give bread another chance! Begin to think again of bread as spiritual nourishment. Begin to think of bread as food from God.
John’s gospel is different from Mark, Matthew and Luke. It seems filled with metaphor, poetic language and mystery. It is definitely not written to be taken literally. One enters John’s gospel much in the same way you might enter a poem…open to hearing things you don’t quite understand. Perhaps you need to approach this gospel meditatively rather than simply reading it…let the words seep into your heart and soul. William Willimon says “Remember this is John’s gospel, where almost nothing is as it first appears on the surface—even the miracles. Everything beckons us deeper and deeper into a better understanding of Jesus as the Christ, the very incarnation of God. The crowds look at Jesus and see little more than a prophet or a wonder worker, We are being coaxed and coached to look at Jesus and see God.” We tend to approach scripture with our intellect. We are scientifically minded people. We want to prove things…understand things…We want to know for sure. John’s gospel is not like that. It beckons us deeper as Willimon says.
In today’s lesson two stories are paired together: The feeding of the multitudes and Jesus walking on water. As we read these stories we wonder did they really happen? What does it all mean? What are the stories trying to tell us? What do the stories reveal about God? I’ve heard some interpret the feeding of the multitudes by saying what really happened was that everyone shared what they had and that was the real miracle and it’s true that would certainly be a miracle. What are we to learn from these stories? What about the calming of the sea? Is it metaphor or real?
In his book “The Heart of Christianity”, Marcus Borg talks about “thin places” an idea he steals from Celtic Christianity. Borg begins by asking the question: “How do our hearts become open?” The biblical answer he says is: The spirit of God does it and the spirit of God operates in thin places. This way of thinking affirms that there are minimally two layers of dimensions of reality, the visible world of our ordinary experience and God, the sacred or Spirit. Thin places are places where these two levels of reality meet or intersect. They are places where the boundary between two levels becomes very soft and porous, permeable. Thin places are where the veil momentarily lifts, and we behold God, experience the one in whom we live, all around us and within us. (pg 156-157)
That is what I think is going on in these stories. The veil is lifted and God is experienced. And that is always a miracle… when we behold God! In that moment when thanks are given and bread is broken, food is shared and God is found. God’s abundant love is seen and felt…It is a thin place… a place of grace. Jesus gave the crowd as much as they wanted. With God’s extravagant love there is always enough. Hearts are opened…defenses are down…there is room for everyone. The disciples are assured that in the storms of life Jesus calms us. In the places where fear overwhelms us God is there.
But maybe if you were to ask someone who was there when the multitudes were fed or ask the disciples what happened when Jesus calmed the storm perhaps their only reply would be” I can’t explain it…but let me tell you what I experienced. I know I experienced God. I know I felt God’s presence. I saw God in this man called Jesus. I mean it doesn’t make sense…first there isn’t enough food and suddenly there are leftovers…one minute the storm is raging the next I am calmed by the presence of this Jesus. It doesn’t make sense but I know what I experienced.
That is the way it is when we live into the mystery of God. Ordinary moments become extraordinary. Suddenly we are aware of the presence of God and it is so hard to explain to anyone…we are often left speechless or sounding like bumbling idiots. It is a moment when our hearts are opened and everything around us feels like a miracle. We know that God is with us and within us. It’s not at all about thinking or proving or making sense of it all… It is about experiencing God’s presence. It is about knowing that there is a mystery beyond our self. Thin places are those times when we feel God shining through everything.
I remember when I was going through the ordination process being asked a lot of questions by the committee on ministry about my beliefs and experience of God and it always felt so hard for me to put into words what I ultimately believe is mystery…how does one explain mystery? You don’t you live into it. You embrace it and trust your experience is real.
Most of us are aware of times in our lives when the veil is lifted and God is revealed. Sometimes it can be in times we would consider celebratory but it can also happen in times of suffering as well as pretty neutral places. Let me explain. Some of us might experience thin places while in nature…the combination of the splendor of creation and the silence gives us pause. We know we are in the presence of God…that God is bigger than we can even imagine. We experience awe. Maybe you’ve been to a place as grand as the Grand Canyon and felt it there…or maybe it was in your own backyard. For others music, art, poetry or literature can bring them to such a place. Or God can shine brightly through another person I hope that we have all known at least one person in our life in which we experience that presence of the spirit. Jesus was such a person. His followers’ devotion came out of what they experienced when in his presence…God incarnate. Let us not forget that worship will hopefully be a thin place. Through music, prayer, hearing the word and sacrament we experience the presence of God. Worship can be a place where our hearts are opened and we see with new eyes.
Think about the times in your life when you have known God was near.
I personally can think of at least a few times…the birth of my children is one and when my sister was dying was another. When I was giving birth it was hard not to believe that God was shining through…in the strength you receive to give birth…in the devotion of a husband who was by my side throughout and then of course the miracle of that first glimpse of your beautiful child! I was surprised when I felt so assured of God’s presence sitting by my sister’s side while she was dying but it was a deeply spiritual experience. In the midst of all my sadness I knew God was right there…the veil was lifted…it was a thin place…God’s mystery revealed.
Another place that took me by surprise was when I went to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. We visited a woman named Geraldine. The house was dirty…the smells unpleasant. I felt immediately uncomfortable. Geraldine was not very attractive by our standards…she was over weight...her hair was un-kept…she had unsightly facial hair. But she sat on the coach and everyone from our group gathered around her and she began to share the plight of the native American people and her concern for the youth especially. She wanted so badly for someone to save her people…to be a voice for the voiceless. She shared how she fed half the neighborhood and tears streamed down her face as she talked about the high suicide rate among the youth. Suddenly I felt the presence of God…Somehow through Geraldine the presence of God was shining through. In the most unlikely place the veil was lifted and suddenly I know we are on holy ground.
Now back to the loaves and fishes. Sometimes the poet can say things in just the right way. So let me close with a poem from Mary Oliver it’s called Logos:
Why wonder about the loaves and the fishes?
If you say the right words, the wine expands.
If you say them with love
And the felt ferocity of that love
And the felt necessity of that love,
The fish explode into many.
Imagine him, speaking,
And don’t worry about what is reality
Or what is plain, or what is mysterious.
If you were there, it was all those things.
Eat, drink, be happy.
Accept the miracle.
Accept, too, each spoken word
Spoken with love.
Amen.